


Crippled Hearts

by HomunColoss



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Disabled Character, Gen, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Paraplegia, wheelchair
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-13 12:17:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3381191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomunColoss/pseuds/HomunColoss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More then three months after his accident Bran comes back to school.<br/>It isn't easy sitting in a wheelchair and there are also his family, his old friends (and "enemies") to deal with. As well as Joe. The new student that Bran finds somewhat intriguing.</p><p>IMPORANT:  This story is ON HOLD!<br/>I still want to finish it / write more for it, but at the moment I have no idea where this story goes and it is likely that I rewrite what I already have whenever i start to work on it again.<br/>PROCEED WITH CAUTION!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Back to School

Three months after the accident Bran's parents and doctors had decided it was time for him to go back to school. They said it would be good for his rehabilitation to get out and be with people his age again, to go see his peers and friends and not only his family.   
Bran was not so sure about it. He wasn't even sure if he had any friends, at least not anymore.   
Being a High-School freshman for only a bit over a month before it happened – now it was spring - he hadn't found any real new friends. In fact just two of his classmates – Arianne and Little Walder, whom he both knew already from Middle-School – had bothered to visit him. And they only came a few times in the beginning.   
Okay perhaps it was his own fault, at least a little bit. He had said some nasty things he later rued and had kicked them out of his room screaming. He was just bitter and didn't want their pity.   
But after that nobody from school visited him again.  
Bran sighed as they turned into the school's parking lot. Luckily class had already started and nobody was left out here to see how his father carried him like a little child – it was embarrassing, he was almost sixteen for God's sake – before setting him down in his wheelchair.   
His mother had come too and was now going to push him to the directors office but that was too much. Bran pulled the brake and glared at her.  
"I can do this myself! I don't need to be pampered all the time!" he snapped.  
"Okay, okay. I just wanted to help."  
Bran noticed the hurt look and resigned tone in her voice and couldn't help but feel a bit bad. His family, they all just wanted to help and only meant well but sometimes it was just too much to bear. Bran turned his wheelchair and set off towards Westeros-High, his parents following on his heels.

More then half an hour later they were still sitting in Director Mormont's office. Granted there was some paperwork but most of the time it was his Mom lamenting her concerns: What if he needed help getting around? Help on the toilet? (At that point Bran wanted to sink in the ground to never reappear again.) What about PE-class? What if somebody bullied him? What if...   
Bran had ceased paying attention a long time ago. It was her fucking idea that he should go back to school and now she wouldn't let him.  
The adults were deep in their conversation when Bran heard a soft, tentative knock. A few moments later the door was cautiously opened and a tall, lanky kid with dirty blond curls peered in.  
“Can you please wait outside. I'll be with you in a minute.” the director told him.  
“Oh! Ah sorry. I didn't want to interrupt you.” the boy excused himself and backed out of the room.  
“You see Mrs. Stark I have other matters to attend to, but be assured Brandon won't have any trouble here. And if any problem should arise the school staff – including me – will tell you and take care of it. Mrs. Stark, Mr. Stark, Brandon.” he complemented them out of the door and at least to Bran it seemed the Old Bear was thankful for the interruption.  
Outside the boy sat opposite the office nervously picking on his fingernails before Mormont called him in. He glanced at Bran curiously before entering and closing the door behind himself  
Bran stared after him before he registered that his mother was talking to him – something about his schedule.  
“... And you know when you need something just talk to a teacher or ask your sisters for help. Or call one of us if it's really important.”  
“Yeah Mom.” He rolled his eyes “You know I'm not a little child and have actually been to school before.”  
“Okay, sweetie. Should we accompany you to your classroom?”  
“Mom! Please leave already! I will find the history-class alone.”  
“Come here” she leaned over to hug him and give him a kiss on the cheek. “Have fun.”  
“You know Mom, it's school. Its not supposed to be fun.” he told her sarcastically as he scrubbed on his cheek to get rid of possible lipstick traces.  
His father thankfully only patted his shoulder. “I'll come get you and Arya when school's over.”  
“Okay Dad. Bye”  
Then they finally left him alone.

Bran looked at his watch and decided not to go to History after all. There were only fifteen minutes left and Mr. Pycelle was a real pain in the ass. Seriously, the man was so boring and old he probably lived through the events he now taught about.  
Instead he turned the other way where he would have English next with Mr. Selmy. Perhaps he would have a chance to talk to him before class started. Selmy was one of the few teachers Bran liked and before the accident he had also been his basketball coach. Now the basketball season was over – forever over for him, he thought bitterly – and football had started. Football was never really his sport, even before – he was too scrawny for it – but Jon and his brother Robb had been on the team before they graduated and Coach Selmy still asked about his former star-players from time to time.  
Bran waited in front of the classroom when the bell rang and Selmy's previous class of seniors left in a hurry. His sister Sansa was among the leaving students and shortly nodded at Bran in passing as she and her best friend Jeyne laughed at something Margaery Tyrell the uncrowned queen of Westeros High had said.  
When the last dawdler had left Bran entered and was greeted by Mr. Selmy.


	2. New Boy

Joe looked at the numbers beside the classroom-doors again, then at the outprint of his class-schedule and frowned. He was lost. The first fucking day at his new school and he couldn't even find his classroom!  
There was nobody around to ask either, classes had started ten minutes ago. He turned around to walk back to the office when he was almost run over by some rampant girl sprinting round the corner. He only just managed to dodge her without falling on his ass but the papers he carried were scattered in the process.  
“Shit, sorry. But I'm late. Crap.” she murmured as an apology before she took off again.  
After dumbly staring for a moment he cried after her. “Hey! Wait a moment. Can you tell me where I find room E02.17?”  
Despite being in such a rush she stopped and told him he had to take the next stairs down to the ground-floor – because right, 02 can logically only mean ground-floor, numbering starting with 01 in the basement – and then left to section E which – logically – stood for east and didn't even have a second floor.  
As soon as she had told him she was off again, muttering “Littlefinger is so going to kill me.” leaving him alone to collect his schedule and his other papers.

When he finally found the classroom he took a deep breath and knocked on the door.  
“Yes?”  
“Is this English? Mr. Selmy's class?”  
“Yes, it is. You must be the new student. Sorry what was your name again?”  
“Reed, Sir.”  
“No need for Sir, last time I checked I haven't been knighted. And a bit louder so the class can all hear you. And you can also tell us a little bit about yourself.”  
“Right.” He looked around the classroom uneasily before his gaze met the boy from before, from the directors office, the one in the wheelchair. “So, my name is Jojen Reed but everybody just calls me Joe. My family just moved to Westeros for my Dad's new job. So, ah, what else?”  
“You could tell us about your hobbies, sports you play? Or if you don't want to, you can just sit down. I'm sure you all will have enough time to get to know each other.”  
Thankful that he didn't have to tell anymore – he hated being in the spotlight – he shuffled over to the last free seat right behind wheelchair-boy.  
The rest of the lesson went pretty unspectacular. They were currently reading The Lord of the Flies, which was really good for him because he had already done this at his old school. Mr. Selmy seemed to be nice and competent and his new classmates seemed to be no different from what he was familiar with from his former school, a few of them actually paying attention and contributing to class while the rest dozed off or quietly talked to each other.  
Normally Joe was attentive in class, but today he couldn't really concentrate. Mostly for sure because it was his first day at Westeros High and even when there were no really big differences to his old school – all schools were more or less the same, he imagined – there still were differences.  
Mostly the people were different, he didn't know them yet and tried to determine what they all were like. Who were the alleged cool kids, whom should he best avoid, where sat the jocks, where the geeks? All important information if he wanted to survive and make the best of moving here.  
The boy in front of him seemed to daydream most of the time, the guy to his left was mostly dosing, some girl in the first row, Tyenne he'd learned, put her hand up at every single question. Another girl in the back-row was constantly texting or gaming on her cellphone and most of the students looked over at Joe from time to time, trying to assess the new guy. But what really stood out was how they looked or blatantly stared at the kid in the wheelchair as if they hadn't ever seen something so strange and interesting ever before.

At the end of the lesson he was one of the last people to leave the classroom. There was only wheelchair-boy left – he had to find out his name it seemed rude to only refer to him as wheelchair-boy, even when it was only in his mind – along with two girls that hadn't finished chatting with each other yet. Joe looked at his schedule, next was french with a Mrs. Melisandre.  
“Ah, can one of you tell me where I find room N03.04? Mrs. Melisandre?”  
One of the girls looked up. “Oh you have French now, too? I can show you the way.”  
“Thanks. I'm Joe by the way.”  
“I know, you told us already. I'm Alayne.”  
Alayne was easy company. She told him a lot of things about the school, what sports is important – mostly football though the team, the dragons, apparently wasn't really as good anymore as they were a few years ago – which teachers to be careful around and that Mrs. Melisandre wanted to be called Madame Melisandre.  
When they entered the classroom that smelled heavily of some perfume or scented candle she promised to show him around in their lunchbreak afterwards.  
Mrs. or rather Madame Melisandre was a bit strange but the class was over relatively quickly and Alayne waited for him at the door. “You coming?”  
They decided to walk around school first and go to the cafeteria later to avoid having to wait in line for to long and set off.


	3. First Impressions

After English Bran had had Biology with old Mrs. Redwyne. She was a good teacher often telling stories and anecdotes to loosen up her lecture. Bran liked her and her subject so him being a bit grumpy had nothing to do with his classes so far but with the way people looked at him. Some just stared point blank, others only stole glances when they thought he wouldn't notice, but they all regarded him with pity and he hated being pitied.  
Two girls he didn't really know aside from seeing them around at school had even come up to him in the hallway saying how very sorry they were for him. Bran had downright ignored them and wheeled past.  
Other than that nobody had talked to him, they just didn't know how to approach him or what to say. And to be honest Bran was mostly relieved they left him in peace. What hurt was that even Arianne and Walder avoided him. Bran had never had many friends – with his big and loving family he hadn't needed many friends, but those two were his friends or at least he had thought so.  
When he entered the cafeteria a lot of heads turned and he was sure he would be the main conversation topic probably for weeks.  
Bran lined up but as he finally got his food he almost wanted to throw it away so he could leave the damn cafeteria with all the gossiping gawkers behind. On the other hand he was really hungry and he wanted to talk to his friends so he looked around for them.  
First he saw Walder who had been not too far ahead of him in the line. But as he wanted to follow him Walder was joined by one of the Kettleblack-boys and Bran watched with trepidation as they headed over to where Joffrey was seated with Big Walder – Walder's cousin and the cause for his hated byname of "Little" Walder – and the rest of his goons. No way would Bran head over there. Joffrey was the leader of the football-jocks and a jerk and known bully.  
Bran looked around for Arianne and found her sitting at a small table with two other girls he only knew from sight just as his sister Arya popped up with Mycah, one of her friends, trailing along.  
"Hey Bran!" she cheered, "We're outside, wanna sit with us?"  
Bran shook his head. "I want to catch up with Arianne, see you later." Arya just shrugged and left him alone. Of all his siblings Bran was closest to Arya – she was only fourteen months older – and sometimes they would sit together at break but with the way everybody was watching him he didn't want it to look like he needed his older sister to babysit him. Also he really wanted to talk to Arianne, so he wheeled over.  
“Hey, Arianne. What's up?” he tried to be cheerful as if nothing had happened.  
“Um, Hi?” one of the other girls muttered.  
Arianne glared at her before she stood up, turning her back, without so much as looking at Bran or acknowledging his presence  
“Tyenne, Sarella, let's go somewhere else.” with that she grabbed her things to leave, the others following her.

After they left Bran just sat there, staring at his food, trying to process what he had done to deserve this. Suddenly he wasn't the slightest bit hungry anymore.   
He only wanted to leave when the new guy from English-class approached him, a tray in his hands.  
“Hi. You're new here too, right? I saw you at the director's office. Can I sit here?”  
“What do I care?” Bran barked at him and left without looking back, leaving his still full tray behind.

 

As Alayne come over a short time later with her own tray Joe still stood staring open mouthed at the door the other one had just left through.  
“What happened to you? You seen a ghost?” she asked snapping him out of his stupor.  
“Something like that.” he answered sitting down.  
When he saw the questioning look she gave him he elaborated “I was only saying hi to the other new guy and he snapped at me and took off. It was totally strange.”  
“What other new guy? You're the only new one I know off.”  
“The one in the wheelchair? I saw him at the director's this morning. I thought he was new too?”  
“You mean Bran? He's not new.”  
“Oh. Is he always unfriendly like this?”  
“I don't really know him but he always seemed friendly enough. You know, he's not exactly new but he hasn't been to school for a few months. Not since his accident. Today's actually the first day he's back.”  
“Oh. What happened?”  
“I'm not sure, there were a lot of rumors. I've heard he had an accident doing tricks with his dirt-bike, others say he fell of a horse or it happened when he was bungee-jumping. The gossip only recently died down but I have a feeling it's gonna start all over again now that he's back.”  
“I'm not into gossip.” Joe stated and changed the topic by asking what was going on in Westeros beside school.

 

Bran had finally calmed down a bit and stopped crying and braced himself to leave his hideout in the disabled toilet when he heard someone enter and bang at the cabin door.  
“Get out of there you Punks! I warned you if I find you in here one more time smoking or doing other shenanigans I'll make sure you all get suspended.” A coarse voice called.  
Bran froze immediately.  
“I said get out. Or should I open the door and get you?”  
With that Bran came to his senses “Just a minute.” He wiped away the last stray tears and opened the door.   
“I wasn't smoking or doing anything.” he explained but the man – the janitor he remembered from before his accident – just looked at him incredulously.  
“Oh, sorry. Normally nobody uses this but some hooligans up to no good. I don't think I've seen you around before. You're new?”  
“No. Not really. But it's my first day like this.” Bran responded indicating at his wheelchair. “I'm Bran Stark.”  
“You're Arya's brother?”  
“Uh, yeah. How do you know my sister?”  
“Everybody knows Arya.” the janitor shrugged “She often has to help me cleaning after school as detention. She's nice, that one. But too hot-headed for her own good.”  
“Yeah she always gets in trouble.” Bran chuckled.  
At that the man brushed his long hair out of his face revealing some really bad looking scars marring the side of his head and neck, most of his left ear missing.   
Bran couldn't help but stare. “How did that happen?” he asked before reprimanding himself, “Sorry I didn't want to stare or pry. I hate when people do that to me.”  
“I'm used to it. You better get used to it, too. Boiling pudding when I was four.” he scoffed.  
“Oh. I don't think I can ever get used to being stared at.”  
“That why your hiding in here? Dumb idiots will always stare and talk behind your back. Just don't let it get to you. It's hard in the beginning. School was hell for me. But you'll learn to ignore it. That is as long as they only stare and don't make fun of you. Then it helps to be bigger then them and knowing how to throw a punch.” the tall janitor smirked and it made him look wicked and dangerous.  
“Well, I don't think that will work for me.” Bran mused.  
“Friends can also help or so I've heard. And knowing your sister she would probably do the punching for you.”  
“She would so kick their asses!” he grinned before getting sad again “But I think I fucked up with my friends. They wont even talk to me.”  
“If they're real ones they'll get around. And if not they're not worth it. Now get off to class or you'll be late.”  
“Thanks Mr. ...” Bran squinted at the name tag but couldn't read it.  
“Call me Sandor. And now off with you.”

 

The rest of the day was uneventful Joe didn't have any more classes with Alayne that day but in his last period – Physics with Mr. Seaworth – he saw wheelchair-boy – Bran – again. Joe wondered if he had said anything wrong before to upset the boy and resolved to apologize after the lesson.  
Most students already left and he was packing his books when Bran wheeled past him. “Sorry if I somehow offended you at lunch that was totally not my intention.” Joe told him.  
Bran stopped surprised, he had already forgotten that incident. “I was an ass, sorry. It wasn't your fault.  
I'm Bran by the way.”  
“Hi, I'm Joe.” he introduced himself extending his hand for Bran to shake.  
“Uh, sorry but I have to go. My Dad's waiting. See you around.” with that Bran left.  
Joe didn't go right home but walked to theater-club to see if there was still a possibility for him to join.


End file.
